Generally, two sheets or more of 2D images having mutually effective time difference are needed to realize 3D stereoscopic images. A camera employed for obtaining two sheets or more of 2D images is called a 3D stereoscopic camera. There exist various techniques and systems for producing 3D (three-dimensional) images. One type of approach is a dual lens 3D image photographing method and another type of approach is a multi-view 3D image photographing method. However, the dual lens camera is largely used.
A conventional 3D stereoscopic camera is configured in such a manner that two fixed image sensors are arranged thereon with two actuators which are horizontally moved to change a position where light from a lens is captured on the image sensor, whereby a convergence angle control can be performed.
The conventional 3D stereoscopic camera is however disadvantageous in that it may be adequate to shoot mid/far distanced 3D stereoscopic images but inadequate to shoot relatively short distanced 3D stereoscopic images because an actuator moves horizontally only.